Pickles – Grow. Cook. Eat.

Forget what your girlfriends told you, size does matter. Too small and they’re bitter. Too large and they have a tough skin.

Cucumbers.

Every morning, I forage through the dense cucumber foliage looking for perfectly sized specimens. The way the vines spread and crawl across the garden, cucumbers can be spotted as far as 10 feet away from the original seedling, and buried under another plant’s leaves. Sometimes, I get overzealous and pick them when they’re too small. And I’m usually disappointed: the small ones are bitter and would have benefit from an extra day on the vine. Just as often, I discover a cucumber that I somehow missed in my regular morning inspection and is now too big for my taste.

For a cost-benefit analysis, it would make sense to let the cucumbers grow as large as possible. After all, it doesn’t cost any more to leave them on the vine – no extra resources are required. Nor does letting them grow longer hinder the prolific production rate of the plant. However, as they grow the skin toughens, the seeds overtake the flesh and the insides become watery. I may have more volume by letting them grow, but this would be a case of diminishing returns.

That sweet spot is about 5 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. The cucumbers are sweet, crunchy, firm and refreshing. Delicious! I usually eat 2 or 3 a day, just as a snack. With the remainder, I’m making pickles.

Dill Pickles
The recipe for dill pickles is mostly technique with a splash of precision.

For every quart of water (4 cups) dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt. To that, add crushed (fresh) garlic, dill sprigs and black pepper (and jalapenos if you’d like).

Cut cucumbers lengthwise into wedges. Submerge in above salt bath. In order to fully submerge cucumbers, you may need to weight them down with a stainless steel sieve or a plate.

Let them sit at room temperature for 48 hours to ferment and turn slightly sour.

To stop the fermentation, refrigerate them. Enjoy within 2 weeks.

When I visited Ed Bruske’s urban garden, I sampled several varieties of his homemade pickles. He had an impressive array of sour, dill, Cajun, bread and butter. Pickles are one of the few things I’ve never made before, so I decided that this summer I would try my hand.

I decided to start with the Bread and Butter variety (it was either that or the dill). I really like pickle relish in my tuna and egg salads, so this seemed like a good beginning. Ed has a wonderful primer with recipes on his website that I used as my guide.

Since I didn’t have pickling lime, which seemed to be a key element in his recipe, I combined the salt ratio for the basic dill with the ingredients of the “bread and butter.” I cooked the pickles for half the recommended time in hopes of preserving the crunch. And if you can believe, I couldn’t find celery seed at the Whole Foods, so I used celery growing in the garden. The flavors came out wonderful. The texture was somewhere between firm and crunchy. I’ll leave full-on crunchy for the experts.

This is what I came up with:

Bread and Butter Pickles
4 cucumbers, sliced into ½ inch wheels
4 cups water
1/4 cup salt
1 1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 ¼ cup sugar
1 tbs. mustard seeds
1 celery stalk
¼ tsp. turmeric
1/8 tsp. clove
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
Black Pepper, freshly ground

Put everything in a stainless steel (or non-reactive pot). Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 20 minutes. Let pickles stand overnight. They will keep for 2 weeks this way or you can can them.

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The garden continues to proliferate cucumbers. With early success in the first pickle venture, I decided to try again with half sour dills.

This time I followed Ed's recipe more closely.

Half-Sour Dill Pickles

For every 2 cups of water, add 1 tablespoon of salt. Use enough water to cover cucumber wedges. Add crushed garlic, fresh dill and black pepper. Let sit for at least 24 hours to ferment before storing in the fridge or canning.

Category: Pickles

Size Matters

Preserving Summer: Cucumbers